Continuing my weekly article inspired by Gazzetta dello Sport, here are the performances of all Italian soccer players operating in foreign European leagues.

Based on Gazzetta’s info, there are currently 22 Italians playing in first divisions abroad, and 10 of them stepped on the field this week-end.

The table below includes the team the player belongs to, their opponents for the week, the number of minutes they played, their contribution (goal, assist), and the final score of the game.
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ENGLAND
Player	Team	Opp.	mins.	Contrib.	Score
Carlo Cudicini	Chelsea	Arsenal	90	/	2-1
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SCOTLAND
Massimo Donati	Celtic	@Gretna	(N/A)	/	3-0
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GERMANY
Luca Toni	Bayern M.	Leverkusen	90	2 goals	2-1
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SPAIN
Fabio Cannavaro	Real Madrid	Valencia	90	/	2-3
Giuseppe Rossi	Villareal	@Levante	(N/A)	/	2-1
Christian Abbiati	Atl. Madrid	@Sevilla	87	/	2-1
Gianluca Zambrotta	Barcelona	Valladolid	90	/	4-1
Enzo Maresca	Sevilla	Atl. Madrid	6	red card	1-2
Morgan De Sanctis	Sevilla	Atl. Madrid	(bench)	/	1-2
Emiliano Moretti	Valencia	@Real Madrid	(N/A)	/	3-2
Stefano Sorrentino	Recreativo	@Racing	90	/	0-2
Damiano Tommasi	Levante	Villareal	(injd.)	/	1-2
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FRANCE
Fabio Grosso	Lyon	Paris SG	90	/	4-2
Flavio Roma	Monaco	@Caen	90	/	1-4
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HOLLAND
Graziano Pellè	AZ Alkmaar	De Graafschap	90	/	0-0
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BELGIUM
Roberto Mirri	Mons	St.Liege	90	/	0-2
Alessandro Pistone	Mons	St.Liege	(injd.)	/	0-2
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SWITZERLAND
Stefano Razzetti	St. Gallen	@Grasshoppers	(bench)	/	3-2
Andrea Guatelli	FC Zürich	@Xamax	(bench)	/	1-3
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POLAND
Stefano Napoleoni	Widzew Łódź	Legia	90	/	0-1
Joseph Oshadogan	Widzew Łódź	Legia	(N/A)	/	0-1
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RUSSIA
Ivan Pelizzoli	Lok. Moscow	@Shinnik	(N/A)	/	2-1

 

Heroes of the week

Coming a little late this week, my “Italian Players Around the World” segment has the advantage there’s not a lot worth mentioning, save for Mr. Toni getting back to his usual in the Bundesliga.

In Germany last week-end, Bayern Munich were battling out at home against Bayer Leverkusen, a match-up between two former Champions League finalists and 1st vs. 3rd in the Bundesliga. Quite some time has passed since those glorious days, although if Bayern keep up their current form, they are certainly destined for more European glory in the near future (perhaps starting this year in the UEFA Cup?). Anyways, the match ended 2-1, courtesy of two goals by… who else? Luca Toni. For the first, the ex-Fiorentina striker exploited a good Ribéry-Klose combination to finish off with his foot, while for the second, the Italian giant connected a good Phillip Lahm cross with an accurate header, sending it out of the Leverkusen keeper’s reach. Toni has now 16 goals in the German league, leading the topscoring charts.

A small mention for the rather unfortunate Enzo Maresca. The ex-Juve and Fiorentina midfielder has been seeing moderate playing time at Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán this season, and things aren’t bound to improve over the next few matches. This time however, it won’t be the manager’s fault. Last week-end, Sevilla were hosting Atletico Madrid (featuring our gloved friend Christian Abbiati), and once again Maresca failed to start the match. In the 53rd minute with the score tied 1-1, Enzo came off the bench for Poulsen, but his match didn’t last very long. 4 minutes after the substitution, Atletico took the lead, and just two minutes after that, Maresca reacted to an Agüero clip from behind by headbutting the Argentine striker. Straight red, and probably a long suspension to follow. Odds are Maresca won’t be sticking at Sevilla for very long now.

Posted in Italian Players Around the World |

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